According to Shedd (Homiletics and Pastoral Theology), there are just three basic types of sermon.
1. The topical sermon. The sermon has one definite subject, which can be expressed in a single statement or proposition.
Shedd cites a sermon by Robert South (see here), on Number 32:23 – ‘Be sure your sin will find you out.’ In Shedd’s summary:
…The proposition of the sermon is this: “Concealment of sin is no security to the sinner.”
In Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages (3rd ed.), Haddon Robinson outlines the main forms, or shapes, that sermons can take.
Here’s a precis.
1. Deductive arrangements
The main idea is stated at the outset, and the body of the sermon explains, illustrates and applies that idea.
(a) An idea explained. For example, Alexander MacLaren preached a sermon on Colossians 1:15-18 on the supremacy of Christ, explaining from his text that Christ is so because he is ‘the image of the invisible God; because he is ‘the firstborn of all creation’; and because he is ‘the head of the body’.…
Most Christians know Paul’s reassuring words from Romans 8:28 – ‘We know that all things work together for good for those who love God.’
But how does this actually work?
Based on the writing of Thomas Watson (The Divine Cordial) Tim Challies outlines 10 ways in which God works suffering for the good of his people.
Here is my own precis.
1. Suffering is our teacher. It reminds us of our sin, immaturity and dependence. It is in the crucible of suffering that many parts of God’s written word – especially the Psalms, come alive and apply themselves to our souls.…
Mark 6:3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” And so they took offense at him.
The reference to Jesus as ‘Mary’s son’ is unusual, and invites attention.
A son would usually be identified in connection with his father, not his mother (although see Judg 11:1–2; 1 Kgs 17:17; Lk 7:12; Acts 16:1; 23:16; Gal 4:21–31). This would be the case even if the father were dead, as may be the case with Jesus, given the silence of the Gospels after the birth narratives in that regard.…
We cannot expect our hearers to remember everything that we say to them. But how can we increase the chances that they might be able to call to mind, and perhaps benefit at a later date, some of the key ideas that we wish to communicate?
In other words, what are some of the ways in which we can create ‘sticky statements’?
Here’s a helpful acrostic on the word PREACH:
Picture – Is there a word picture or metaphor?…
(This is a slightly revised version of a short talk that was first drafted many years ago)
Text: Luke 2:22-24, 36-38
Some 80 years before a certain baby boy was cradled in a manger in Bethlehem, a little girl was born just a few miles away. No doubt she was her parent’s pride and joy. And no doubt she was strong, active and healthy. Anyway, in due course, she grew up and fell in love with the man of her dreams. …
Andrew Lincoln (Born of a Virgin?) maintains that the birth narratives in Luke’s Gospel witness to the virginal conceptions of Jesus. Specifically, Lincoln cites:
1. The step-parallelism between the birth accounts of John the Baptist and Jesus. As Lincoln remarks:
‘If an infertile woman can bear a child, then the greater miracle is for a virgin to conceive without any male seed being involved.’
2. Mary’s response to the annunciation: ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’…
4:13 I am able to do all things through the one who strengthens me.
Ben Witherington has characterised this the ‘Superman Verse’, on the basis of its common misinterpretation.
Noting that this verse is often claimed by athletes, the Apologetics Study Bible for Students explains:
…‘Paul is not claiming that Christians can do absolutely anything. After all, is it really possible to run three-minute miles or bench press one thousand pounds? The context shows that Paul actually had Christian perseverance in mind.
It is sometimes imagined that Jesus was nothing but sweetness and light. But this is very wide of the mark.
As N.T. Wright (Jesus and the Victory of God, p183f) points out the Synoptic Gospels record a ‘pretty devastating catalogue of threats and warnings’.
That catalogue, as compiled by Wright, looks something like this:
Leave the dead to bury the dead (Mt. 8:22/Lk. 9:60);
…Do not put the new wine into old wineskins (Mt.
This is an updated version of a piece I first published on 6th December 2019.
In 2013, Andrew Lincoln published Born of a Virgin? Reconceiving Jesus in the Bible, Tradition, and Theology, presents a case for denying the virgin birth (more properly, the virginal conception) of Jesus.
As Jason Engwar says,
…‘Lincoln is a supernaturalist who accepts traditional Christian concepts like the deity of Jesus and his resurrection, but rejects other traditional positions, such as Biblical inerrancy and the historicity of the virgin birth.
